Don't miss out on this

A chance to buy some of the wonderful books that I've published recently.

The greay thing about self-publishing is the frredon to choose any fucking subject I want. No matter how uncommercial it might be. That and the lack of deadlines. Which, weirdly, probably prompts me to come out with books more quickly and more frequently.

The most recent of these efforts is my history of UK brewing in WW I. It has everything: words, numbers and a stupid number of homebrew recipes. Plus a lovely cover by my son Alexei.

 Buy this wonderful book.

Published earlier in 2018 is my book covering British brewing after WW II. One of the gloomiest periods in Britain's history. When the beer was as weak as piss. I'm selling this well, aren't I? For those interested in such piss-weak brews, there are more than 300 homebrew recipes. Some even for beers over 3% ABV.

http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/austerity/23181344

Tallking of homebrew recipes, Let's Brew! consists of nothing else. I consider it an expansion pack for my Home Brewer's Guide to Vintage Beer. With many recipes - like North American and Lager recipes - that I couldn't include in the original book for reasons of space.

http://www.lulu.com/shop/ronald-pattinson/lets-brew/paperback/product-23289812.html

Finally, what's possibly my most important book so far, a history of Scottish beer over the last 150 years or so. All material in is new, apart from a few recipes, of which there are almost 400. Why the hell hasn't this been picked up by a "real" publisher?

http://www.lulu.com/shop/ronald-pattinson/scotland-vol-2/paperback/product-23090497.html 

Greene King Burton Ale

Burton Ale wasn't a style confined to just London. There were brewers outside the capital (and Burton-on-Trent) who brewed one. I know that from, amonst other evidence, old beer labels.

It wasn't until I stumbled upon this advert that Greene King had a draught as well as a bottled Burton Ale. Which is intriguing. Especially as it sold for the same price - 1s 3d - as their Best Bitter.

Bury Free Press - Friday 20 May 1949, page 11.

The question I immediately asked myself was: how strong were Greene King Burton and Best Burton? Time to scan my spreadsheets and take a look at their brewing records.

Unfortunately, I don't have records from spring 1949, just late 1948 and January 1949. Which is just that little bit too early. I'm hoping that the relevant brewing book is one of the ones Henry photographed. And that I will eventually get the pictures off him.

On the upside, I do have quite a few analyses of Green King beers from just a little later. Combining all of this, I've got a pretty good idea of the character of their beers.

Let's take a look at their bottled range first:

Greene King bottled beers 1954 - 1960
Year	Beer	Style	Price per pint (d)	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	colour	Index of Hop Bitter
1960	Burton Ale	Brown Ale	20	1033.4	1011.7	2.80	64.97%		16
1956	Harvest Brown Ale	Brown Ale	22	1035.2	1013.9	2.75	60.51%	105
1959	India Pale Ale	IPA	20	1033.3	1010	3.02	69.97%	25
1960	India Pale Ale	IPA	20	1033	1007.7	3.16	76.67%	25
1960	India Pale Ale	IPA	20	1033.2	1008.5	3.20	74.40%		24
1960	Lager	Lager		1034.9	1006.4	3.56	81.66%	9.5
1960	Abbot Ale	Pale Ale	30	1048.6	1006.7	5.24	86.21%	19
1954	Stout	Stout	19	1034.3	1012.7	2.79	62.97%	450
1954	Sweet Stout	Stout	26	1046.6	1020.3	3.39	56.44%	450
1960	Suffolk Ale	Strong Ale	34	1056.8	1015.7	5.14	72.36%	70
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002
Which Beer Report, 1960, pages 171 - 173.

What first strikes me about their bottled Burton Ale is that it looks more like a Brown Ale than a London Burton. It's called BA in the brewing records and, had I not known they brewed a beer called  Burton, I would have assumed that it stood for Brown Ale.

From the brewing records, I know that in late 1948 all three of the bottled beers listed, Stout, IPA and Burton Ale, all had an identical OG: 11.1 lbs per barrel, or 1031º. By 1960 that had increased a few degrees to 1033-1034º. They had also expanded their bottled range, which included a higher OG Stout and a stronger Pale Ale in the form of Abbot Ale.

Index of hop bitterness, if you're wondering, seems to be about the same as IBUs. The figure of 16 certainly tallies with what you'd expect from a Brown Ale. London Burton Ales were more heavily hopped than that.

Now their draught beers:

Greene King draught beers 1954 - 1960
Year	Beer	Style	Price per pint (d)	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	colour	Index of Hop Bitter
1960	Mild	Mild	12	1030.7	1006.05	3.20	80.29%		18
1960	Abbot Ale	Pale Ale	22	1051.3	1007.9	5.43	84.60%	20
1960	Best Bitter	Pale Ale	15	1038.4	1007.4	3.88	80.73%	20
1960	Bitter	Pale Ale	15	1037.0	1006.25	4.00	83.11%		33
1960	Ordinary Bitter	Pale Ale	13	1033.9	1005.7	3.53	83.19%	26
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002
Which Beer Report, 1960, pages 171 - 173.

Note that the draught beer prices are the same as in 1949. The explanation is that the tax had decreased between 1949 and 1960. Though it also seems that draught Best Burton had disappeared. But, given that it cost the same price as Best Bitter, I'm guessing that its OG was around 1038º. Which is more like a Best Mild than a London Burton. Even in the darkest days of post-war austerity, London Burton had a gravity of over 1040º.

Though it was called IPA Cask within the brewery, the trade name seems to have been plain old Bitter. I wonder when they started calling the draught version IPA in pubs?

Excise Licences to Makers of Alcoholic Liquors 1900 - 1936

Numbers again today. Lots of them And not a huge number of words as I have to start cooking Sunday dinner in a minute.

This set is interesting because it breaks down the number of breweries by the UK's constituent countries. Which reveals that the vast majority of breweries were in England and Wales. Every year covered by the table approximately 97% were in England and Wales. While fewer than 90% of the population lived there.

While Scotland contained a disproportionate number of the distilleries. No real surprise there.

The numbers for brewers not for sale - i.e. homebrewers - are a bit weird. In that, unlike those for common brewers, they weren't in constant decline. They were falling slowly until WW I, when they initially rose and then collapsed. Presumably because brewing materials were unavailable. After the war, the numbers shot up again, getting back to almost their 1900 level by 1928. Quite surprising that.

Excise Licences to Makers of Alcoholic Liquors 1900 - 1936
Year ending March 31	Common Brewers				Distillers and Rectifiers				Brewers not for Sale
	Eng.	Scot.	Ire.	U.K.	Eng.	Scot.	Ire.	U.K.	Eng.	Scot.	G.B.
1900	6270	136	41	6447	268	200	59	527	12607	127	12734
1901	5936	132	41	6110	286	200	57	543	12296	114	12410
1902	5736	126	36	5898	272	196	56	524	11772	100	11872
1903	5533	122	37	5692	252	193	56	501	11665	87	11752
1904	5340	117	38	5495	256	195	54	505	11275	84	11359
1905	5164	111	36	5211	264	191	51	506	9863	67	9930
1906	5001	108	33	5142	254	187	52	493	9266	56	9322
1907	4846	108	31	4985	257	195	50	502	8840	49	8889
1908	4674	104	30	4808	261	188	48	497	8438	43	8481
1909	4539	98	30	4667	256	188	48	492	7530	38	7568
1910	4390	92	30	4512	241	185	46	472	6980	26	7006
1911	4212	88	29	4329	212	184	42	438	6833	22	6855
1912	4074	81	29	4184	212	177	41	430	5953	20	5973
1913	3833	79	29	3941	224	180	41	445	4992	17	5009
1914	3643	75	28	3746	213	179	41	433	4522	15	4537
1915	3458	71	27	3556	220	175	41	436	4728	13	4741
1916	3273	70	27	3370	222	173	41	436	5982	9	5991
1917	3141	67	26	3234	222	171	39	432	5207	10	5217
1918	3060	66	25	3151	219	169	39	427	1598	4	1602
1919	2968	64	25	3057	226	161	38	425	1876	3	1879
1920	2826	63	25	2914	270	161	38	469	2998	1	2999
1921	2587	60	23	2670	277	162	37	476	6174		6174
1922	2403	59	22	2484	260	160	37	457	7069		7069
1923	2238	58	2	2298	247	156	*12	415	8028	40	8068
1924	2089	57	2	2148	254	151	12	417	9423	409	9832
1925	1938	56	2	1996	252	159	12	423	8991	476	9467
1926	1789	54	1	1844	252	153	12	417	10869	618	11487
1927	1670	51	1	1722	246	150	11	407	11427	751	12178
1928	1550	49	1	1599	245	145	11	401	12257	842	13099
1929	1453	49		1502	237	145	11	393	11878	1044	12922
1930	1372	46		1418	241	136	11	388	11437	1076	12513
1931	1295	45		1340	231	134	10	375	11462	1088	12550
1932	1241	45		1286	235	129	10	374	10033	1106	11139
1933	1196	43		1239	221	126	10	357	10141	1135	11276
1934	1153	44		1197	215	123	8	346	9549	1197	10746
1935	1102	42		1144	217	124	10	341	8906	1264	10170
1936	1060	43		1103	204	121	9	334	8502	1265	9767
* From 1923 figures are for Northern Ireland only.
Source:
"Drink in Great Britain 1900 - 1979", by Gwylmor Prys Williams and George Thompson Brake, 1980, page 367.

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1939 Truman Pale 1B

The bottling version of Truman’s No. 1 Pale Ale was the brewery’s flagship beer. After WW II it would be dubbed Ben Truman Pale Ale and eventually find infamy as a crappy keg beer in the 1960s. When that sort of thing was all the rage.

It was also the brewery’s classic IPA in the 19th century, weighing in at 1067º. The winds of time naturally eroded that somewhat, but it retained a reasonable gravity. With its gravity of over 1050º, it’s a typical interwar Best Bitter. Though, as the B suffix denotes, this was a beer intended for bottling.

The grist is much like the other beers from Truman’s Burton brewery. The base is a combination of pale and high-dried malt, though with rather less of the latter than their Mild Ales. The remainder of the grist consists of flaked maize and invert sugar. I’ve guessed No. 1 invert, but it could just have easily been No. 2.

The hops are, again, all English from the 1937 and 1938 harvests.

1939 Truman Pale 1B
pale malt	9.00 lb	75.00%
high dried malt	1.50 lb	12.50%
flaked maize	1.00 lb	8.33%
No. 1 invert sugar	0.50 lb	4.17%
Fuggles 90 mins	1.00 oz
Fuggles 60 mins	0.75 oz
Goldings 30 mins	0.75 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.50 oz
OG	1053.5
FG	1013.5
ABV	5.29
Apparent attenuation	74.77%
IBU	30
SRM	6
Mash at	151.5º F
Sparge at	160º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	59.5º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1028 London Ale (Worthington White Shield)

Guinness exports to the UK 1861 - 1901

As promised, here's a look at Guinness exports to Britain in relation to total Irish beers exports to the UK. It's probably not what uou'd expect. It certainly isn't what I expected.

Because even as late as 1861, Guinness made up less than 50% of Irish beer exports. Though by the time the 19th century ended, they had risen to three-quarters of the total. Why did this happen? How did Guinness come to dominate the English market for Irish Stout?

I think it's all down to branding. One of the interesting features of old newspapers are the adverts for beer. From the 1850s there are plenty of mentions of Dublin Stout. But here's the strange thing: often there's to indication of the brewery that produced it, other than that it was presumably located in Dublin.


There's one exception to this. Guinness. Who are often mentioned by name. It looks to me as if they've taken a generic product - Dublin Stout - and made it their own. Effectively making Guinness synonymous, at least in England, with Dublin Stout.  At least that's my theory.

Guinness exports to the UK 1861 - 1901 (bulk barrels)
Year	Guinness	Total	% Guinness
1861	101,664	255,576	39.78%
1871	191,555	421,952	45.40%
1881	205,759	508,035	40.50%
1891	368,332	691,478	53.27%
1898	387,995	552,942	70.17%
1901	512,945	689,796	74.36%
Sources:
"A Bottle of Guinness please" by David Hughes, pages 276-279
"Ireland Industrial and Agricultural", 1902, page 457

Number of breweries in the UK 1838 - 2917

Lots of numbers this time. You may be able to tell that I've been doing some more extracting from BBPA Statistical Handbook 2018.

The trend for the last couple of decades are the exact opposite of those for pubs. That is, the nunmbers have been constantly rising.  Though a quick glance at the table will tell you that the current number of breweries is way off the record. It's only just about got back to the level of the early 1920s. Go back into the 19th century and its's way short.

Though it should be borne in mind that the vast majority of breweries in the 19th century were tiny, producing fewer than 1,000 barrels per year. In 1881, for example, around 75% of brewers were homebrew pubs.

One thing to bear in mind: these numbers are for brewing licences issued. The number of breweries thnat were actively brewing was lower.

I'm going to out on a limb here: I don't think we'll ever see the UK manage 1 brewery per 544 inhabitants again.

Number of breweries in the UK 1838 - 2917
Year	Breweries	population	pop. per brewery
1838	49,200	26,751,199	544
1870	32,287	31,555,694	977
1880	21,131	34,934,476	1,653
1890	11,364	37,802,381	3,327
1895	9,050	39,220,114	4,334
1900	6,447	41,154,646	6,384
1910	4,512	44,911,346	9,954
1914	3,647	46,089,249	12,638
1920	2,914	46,873,396	16,086
1930	1,418	46,074,000	32,492
1935	1,144
1940	840	48,216,000	57,400
1945	708
1950	567	50,290,000	88,695
1955	460
1960	358	52,807,000	147,506
1965	274
1970	177	55,928,000	315,977
1980	191	56,352,000	295,037
1990	279	57,808,000	207,197
2000	500	59,009,000	118,018
2001	448
2002	403
2003	493
2004	504
2005	570
2006	642
2007	667
2008	725
2009	745
2010	828
2011	948
2012	1,300
2013	1,490
2014	1,700
2015	1,880
2016	2,250
2017	2,430	66,020,000	27,169
Sources:
Journal of the Institute of Brewing, vol 7, 1901, page 64
BBPA Statistical Handbook 2003, p. 92
Brewers' Almanack 1955 p.68